Last Penance: Chapter 3 – A Scum’s Cleansing

Chapter 3 – A Scum’s Cleansing

I’ve finally made it to the outskirts of the Vatican after hundreds of miles of traveling. Along the way, I’ve gathered the materials I need to create the explosives that will destroy the undercities. I’ve also destroyed many other rest stops and killed when I felt that I could save a poor soul here and there. Looking at myself now, I see that I’m dirtied by more blood than dirt. The man I’m supposed to meet will probably freak out if he saw me like this, but then again, ratmen who aren’t allied with Vicar Sylvatic are rare and the Vicar has used the goodwill that the runaways have cultivated to send in spies and assassins who pretend to be the same runaways, so it probably doesn’t matter how I look. Still, I wash myself as best I can in a nearby pond to appear as best I can before continuing.

While on the road, I hear the sounds of a galloping horse coming towards me. Getting out of the pond and hiding in the bushes, I see a man dressed in royal garb and his horse. The man brings his horse near the pond to give it a rest and allow it to drink while he fills his water container and drinks from the pond himself. Noticing the water’s fowl taste, he spits out the water, empties his water container, sits down, and looks at the sky. From his appearance and the shiny sword and shield he has, I can tell he’s a man of influence. His black hair looks well-kept and his black and gold garb seems clean so he must’ve just left his home. His skin is as black as ash and his eyes are golden, which means he’s a native to this kingdom. Yes, this must be the man who will be my witness.

Since there’s no easy or simple way of doing this, I walk out of the bushes with my hands raised. When the man sees me, he quickly unsheathes his sword and backs away with his shield up and his legs spread out in a fighting stance. It appears he looks like he knows something about fighting or at least it looks that way.

“Do not worry. I mean you no harm,” I say.

“Step no closer. What’s a ratman like you doing here? I won’t let you take me if that’s what you plan on doing,” the man says while looking around and trying to keep his eyes on me at the same time.

“I truly mean you no harm. I only ask that you come with me to witness me expose the threat of Vicar Sylvatic’s army to the Church.”

“Really? Why should I trust you?”

The man’s horse curiously approaches me, smells me, and then licks my face.

“Do I appear dangerous? Would I approach you this way if I meant to kill or kidnap you? Your horse seems to trust me.”

“Ratmen are always stronger and craftier than they appear, but my horse is usually a good judge of character. Okay, I’ll help you if you explain who you are and what you mean by being a witness to expose the threat of the false Vicar’s forces.”

“My name is Ziotogora. I was a head researcher for the Vicar, but I’ve now turned my back on him because of my deceased father’s intercession who has been God’s tool to open my eyes to my sins. I am to bring you down to the undercities that are under the Vatican and make you witness their destruction so as to convince you of the true extent of the dangers of the Vicar’s forces.”

“You want to bring me down there, and did you say undercities as in multiple undercities underneath the Vatican itself?”

“Yes, and there are three undercities under the Vatican, one small one directly under it and two larger ones a bit further from it.”

The man lowers his guard and looks to be considering the implications of this truth.

“How can this be possible? I haven’t even heard of any reports of ratmen in this area. And three undercities?”

“The ratmen are craftier than you think and can get past even your best defenses by tunneling underground where you least expect them to be.”

“In terms of bringing me down, what guarantee do I have of my safety and how will you destroy them by yourself?”

“I will keep you in this sack with holes in it and carry you around so that the ratmen down there do not touch you and act as if you’re a new experiment of mine.”

“Can you carry me around? I’m bigger than you.”

“Trust me,” I say as I lift the man’s horse above my head with my hands. “I can.”

I then put down the man’s horse who doesn’t seem to mind that I picked it up.

“Okay, I see that now.”

“As for how I will destroy the undercities by myself, I know of its weak points that will make it collapse in on itself. I have the materials and know-how to make explosives with me and where the supplies are in the undercity to make more just in case I run out.”

“So, I take it that you’ve been to them yourself?”

“I’ve been there multiple times over the course of many generations, yes.”

The man paces back and forth considering what I’ve said while looking up at the eternal night sky of Noctua as if asking Heaven for advice.

“Okay, okay. Against my better judgment, I believe you. Let’s just make this as quick as possible because I’m sure it’s going to be a harrowing experience.”

“I know that, so I’ll try to be as quick as possible. What is your name by the way?”

“Niccolo.”

“Niccolo, thank you so much for believing me. God bless you.”

“We’re going to need to be blessed to get through this alive.”

“That you are correct on.”

Niccolo and I ride on his horse close to the hidden entrance of the nearest undercity and then he tells it to go home, which it does. What a surprisingly well-mannered animal. I then quickly put Niccolo into my sack with his sword much to his surprise.

“Did you really have to do that so suddenly?” he asks.

“Yes, I did. These entrances are watched, so I don’t want anyone thinking that we’re working together even though I don’t see anyone around here,” I say.

“I guess it makes sense.”

Now with my witness in hand, I make it to the secret entrance that’s hidden in a meadow under some dirt that is easy to miss and mistake for a lump in the ground. I dig layers of the dirt out, open the hatch, and head into the maze of tunnels. Even though it’s been some time since I last been here, I go in circles once and end up at a dead end, I manage to find myself at the entrance of the undercity where I am immediately ambushed by ratman guards wearing heavy armor who wield claws of steel.

“Speak your name or die,” one of the guards says.

I take off my hood making the guards recoil in surprise.

“Zio-Ziotogora! I’m sorry we didn’t recognize you when we saw you on the surface, sir. That cloak hid much of your face. Why have you honored us with your presence today and who is this with you?”

“Fools. I have no need to answer any of your questions, as your superior, but for your sake, I will reveal that this man with me is Niccolo, a royal,” I say before revealing Niccolo’s head but keeping him in the sack.

“Ah, so that’s who we saw. We couldn’t get a good look at his face since you put him in your sack before we could but knew that he was doing one of his usual runaways from his family’s estate. This is a valuable specimen if you didn’t know. We were going to capture him today, especially since he’s in bad standing with his family and his family’s business so he wouldn’t be missed, so we’re glad that you managed to catch him.”

Another guard says, “Could you be so charitable to us and let us know what experiments you’re going to run on him?”

“Oh, and if you aren’t going to experiment on him, could we have the first taste of his flesh? The royals always taste the best,” yet another guard says with a drooling mouth.

“I will not have you harm him in the least. I need him in perfect health for my purposes,” I say.

The guards look at each other and laugh before one of them says to Niccolo, “Oh ho, ho! That means he’s going to put you through such pains that you’ll wish you’d die.”

“Turn him into a female and give him to us so we can have some fun!” another says.

“I can’t wait to hear him scream his lungs out and writhe in agony!” yet another guard says.

“Get out of my way!” I say as I push Niccolo’s head back into the sack, pass the cackling guards, and go through the doors to enter the undercity.

This place is as impressive as always with its tallest buildings reaching into the dark abyss above where the ground is supposed to be. It looks like the buildings here have been reinforced with metal plating, but the structures below them shouldn’t be any harder to blow up even if they have been reinforced. There are many more guards here than in a usual undercity, but this one has more guards roaming about with no-nonsense looks on their faces. Still, I can hear the sounds of debauchery, torturing, and women in labor pains echo through this overly large cave. Once I make it down to where the structures keeping these buildings stable are, I use my credentials to make it past the guards to enter the small space and then make sure the coast is clear before allowing Niccolo out of the sack and getting to work setting up the explosives.

“Take a breath and keep a lookout for guards while I work. I shouldn’t be too long,” I say.

“Yeah,” Niccolo says in a shaky voice. “Um. Those terrifying things those ratmen were saying about experimenting on people. Have you really done that?”

“I have. Many of the monsters around here including the abominations that are men masquerading as women are my creation as well. They’re all horror that I’m ashamed to have made.”

“I’ve seen them through the holes in the sack. I don’t think I’ll ever forget seeing them. In fact, I probably won’t be able to sleep without seeing them in my nightmares, and the screams of the women. Those screams are going to echo through my mind for a while as well.”

“It’s a good thing you didn’t get a better look. Let’s just say that a dirty bathroom is cleaner than their so-called places of pleasure. As for the screams of the women, those were women who were giving birth to ratmen and who are soon going to die not just from giving birth but also from being eaten alive by her children.”

“That sounds more than nightmarish. Did you…”

“Yes, I’m responsible for that as well since ratmen can’t be women and can’t give birth to ratmen even when given the reproductive organs of a woman.”

I’m fully expecting Niccolo to kill me, but for some reason, I don’t want to turn to make sure he doesn’t. Perhaps, I want him to kill me because of what I’ve done. Nevertheless, nothing happens.

I continue by saying, “Their inability to produce children naturally is one of the primary weaknesses of the ratmen. Once the Church knows of this and bolsters their defenses, there should be significantly fewer ratmen for them to face. Niccolo.”

“Huh? What is it?” he says.

“Just making sure you’re listening to me and still awake. The explosives are almost done. These undercities are built with self-destruct mechanisms in them to bring them down upon their enemies if the battle goes poorly, but the inhabitants of this city will not have enough time to leave.”

“Even the captives?”

“Unfortunately, yes. We have no choice but to leave them behind. It will simply take too long and be too risky to rescue them even if we had a legion of troops behind us.”

“I…I understand.”

I finish setting up the explosives and start the timer. After putting Niccolo back into the sack, I run away with him and make my way into the maze-like tunnels that go into the next undercity. By the time I make it to the next city, the ground starts to shake, which means the explosives have gone off. Thankfully, I made it here in time, so they do not suspect me of the other city’s destruction. The guards of this undercity are checking out what is going on while relatively few stand guard here. This allows me to easily slip through them and head under the city to where the structures keeping it up are that are currently unguarded and get to work.

“Keep an eye out like last time, Niccolo. There’s no one here no, but they may send people here to check on their self-destruct mechanism,” I say.

“I will,” he says.

Several minutes of uncomfortable silence pass until I break it by saying, “Those guards from before said you usually run away from home?”

“Yes. I can’t stand my family’s life of politics and having no say in the direction of my life. I’d rather be a soldier in the army than the child of politicians who are specifically influencing what the army is doing.”

“You’re blessed to at least have a family. I wasn’t always a ratman. I was born as a normal human and the child of an affair between a royal and a bishop. My mother was executed after trying to kill me and my father died when I was a young adult. For generations, after I turned into a ratman, I secluded myself in my experiments because I wanted to make a name for myself thinking that I’d eventually feel fulfilled by it, but that never happened. It just made me thirstier for rewards and the results that I wanted. I am more than grateful that my father came to me in a dream as an instrument of God to change my life so I wouldn’t be stuck in that life until the end of my days, and you should be thankful for what your parents have given you. It’s not like you’ve worked for corrupt royals and bishops like I have, have you?”

“No, not really, even if I question some of our actions. I’d just rather be fighting than sending others to fight and die for me.”

“Someone has to do the job and it takes just as much strength, or sometimes more, to command men than to fight.”

“I see. Wait, I hear someone coming down here.”

“What we have will have to do then.”

Putting Niccolo back into the sack, we manage to escape just as I see some ratmen come down to examine the structures. The timer is shorter so it should go off before they manage to find and disarm it. I race towards the uppermost undercity from this one. Entering into the tunnels connecting this city to the next, I shift from one path to the next to avoid the guards patrolling it and going to and from the cities. Before we’re able to get to the next city above us, the ground shakes and the tunnels around us start to collapse.

Racing as fast as I can, I move through the tunnels, and just as the ground above us is breaking, I see the structures holding the above city stable. Thank you, God, for making this easier for me. I quickly enter the new opening, drop Niccolo, and do my best to ready the explosives at an even quicker rate than usual.

“Ready yourself! We can’t afford to be subtle,” I say.

“Right!” Niccolo says as he takes his sword out and readies himself for a fight.

It isn’t long before the guards discover us and try to stop me. Niccolo is thankfully a good fighter and manages to hold them off, however, a few of them get through forcing me to stop what I’m doing to defend myself. Seeing as how we have no time, I set the timer on the explosives shorter than the last time, grab Niccolo, and race to the surface. The explosives I’ve set immediately go off leading to the ground and buildings above us to collapse. Running as fast as I can, I leap between debris until making it to the tunnels that lead directly to the surface that are collapsing as well. The way forward gets blocked while others open up forcing me to guess and pray that I am going the right way.

By the time I’m halfway to the surface, the rest of the tunnel collapses, however, the way up is completely clear leading to a straight shot to the surface. Once we finally make it above ground, we see that we’re in St. Peter’s Square and there’s a large crater behind us. Before we can catch our breath, the Vatican’s guards surround us and start to question me. I let Niccolo go and he starts to tell them what I told him and what he’s experienced, and thanks be to God, they believe him, but still put me in a secured and guarded room until things settle down. As I sleep, I dream of myself being in my old human form and see that I am surrounded by my parents who are hugging me. My father is clothed in a glorious light as always while my mother is clothed in a gold and red flame.

“I knew you could do it,” my father says.

“My boy, my son. I love you so much. I’m sorry for what I tried to do to you,” my mother says.

I wake up soon after in tears and have to catch my breath before going back to sleep. A day passes until I am able to see Niccolo again and tell the Pope, archbishops, cardinals, military generals, and royals of the many kingdoms the true threat the ratmen possess and Vicar Sylvatic’s plans to attack soon with his heavily mutated and regenerating soldiers and make the many undercities reveal themselves and overwhelm the locations they are nearest to. Since Niccolo already gave his account of what he saw and how I was the one who caused the destruction of the undercities, the Church leaders believe me. For the next two years, I help these leaders strategize against the Vicar, pointing out locations of undercities, telling them the weaknesses of the mutated abominations, and how to fight the ratmen in the undercities and where the self-destruct mechanism is in every undercity so they’ll be able to take them and save the captives within them. We make good progress to the point where I’m confident that the Vicar will eventually face justice and his armies crumble.

In these two years, I’ve also gotten progressively sicker to the point where I need a cane to help me walk around. It is also in these two years that I developed a sort of companionship with members of the Church, especially Niccolo, whom I spend my days of rest with. I’ve even gone to his family’s estate for holidays and they surprisingly accepted my presence among them. Perhaps it’s because I’m not as dirty as I once was or because they don’t mind the fact that I’m a walking rodent with the figure and face of a mutated man. Being with them is nice and makes me feel like I am among family rather than friends, a fact that brings tears of joy multiple times. On one seemingly random day, while walking around with Niccolo, I feel my strength finally fail me. I fall down and cough more blood than usual, but despite my pain, I feel peace and know my time has finally come. Niccolo begs me to get up and tries to get me help to bring me to the nearest hospital.

I hold his hand, try my best to give him a comforting smile, and say, “It’s okay, Niccolo. Be glad because a great sinner faces his due judgment today.”

“Hold on, my friend! Don’t leave me yet!” Niccolo says.

Friend, huh? That title feels like a more respectable title than the ones I received while in the service of Vicar Sylvatic. After breathing my last, my body transforms while a golden light takes me upward as if it were the hand of God. Looking at my hands and body, I see that I’m back to being a normal human, and in front of me are my mother and father, both of whom are clothed in a glorious light. They run to embrace me, tell me how much they love me, and how they’re overjoyed that we’ll make up the lost time together in Heaven.

I smile, hug them, and say, “I love you too, mother and father. Thank you for helping me to get here to be with God and you, forever.”

The End